The Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) announced that Iceland was selected as the safest and most peaceful country in the world with a score of 1.124 in the Global Peace Index (GPI), according to the New York Post on Oct. 1.
The GPI quantifies peace by aggregating 23 items including social, political, and international conflicts, military power, arms exports, violent crimes, war casualties, and terrorism risk, among others. In each item, a country is scored on a scale of 1 to 5. The lower a country’s number is, the higher the country’s GPI ranking is.
Iceland scored one in most categories. While the country scored 1.7 and 1.6 in homicide and violent crimes, respectively, it scored one in political conflicts, terrorism risk, and international conflicts. Thus, it took first place among countries around the world.
South Korea, on the other hand, scored a GPI of 1.763, ranking 43rd among 163 countries. The nation scored fewer points than neighboring Asian countries such as Japan (9th), Taiwan (33rd), and Vietnam (41st).
South Korea’s relatively low GPI ranking is due to its low score of 4 in the relations with neighboring countries category. This was blamed on South Korea’s frictions with North Korea, experts say. Military strength (2.98), arms exports (2.71), and arms imports (2.36) also contributed to keeping South Korea’s low in the peace rankings.
However, South Korea received relatively high evaluations on access to weapons (1), terrorism risk (1), violent crimes (1), and homicide (1.3).
Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, and Austria ranked second through fifth, respectively, after Iceland. Other notable countries include Germany (15th), the United Kingdom (37th), China (80th), the United States (131st), North Korea (149th), and Afghanistan (163rd and lowest).